Voters to Decide on $24 Million Worth of Beach Reconstruction

By KRISTIN DAVIS

BY KRISTIN DAVIS

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

NAGS HEAD – Town voters will decide April 17 if property owners will pay higher taxes to raise $24 million to rebuild the beach.

The Dare County Board of Elections met with town officials Thursday and agreed on the date for the special election, which will also ask voters if they want oceanfront property owners to pick up the bigger share of the tab.

The county has agreed to foot the rest of the estimated $30 million project – up to $8 million – which would widen 10 miles of beaches with offshore sand.

If the referendum passes, property taxes townwide would go up 5.54 cents per $100 in assessed value. Taxes would increase an additional 32.08 cents per $100 on real estate in a planned special municipal service district – south of Blackman Street and east of N.C. 12 and Old Oregon Inlet Road. The current town tax rate is 14.75 cents, and that does not include county property taxes.

The tax increase would probably last five years, town officials have said.

Approval may not be easy.

A majority of voters in the special service district must approve the referendum as well as a majority of voters townwide, said county elections director Melva Garrison.

The Nags Head Board of Commissioners will hear from residents Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. during a public hearing on the $24 million bond proposal and the special service district. The service district, which commissioners have not yet approved, would allow the town to tax property owners there more heavily.

If the district is approved, the county Board of Elections would notify voters within it, Garrison said.

Because a high turnout is expected at Wednesday’s hearing , the town has moved the meeting from its municipal complex to nearby Nags Head Fire Station 16.

Beach nourishment opponents say that it is a costly endeavor with no guarantee and that it could create an unnatural looking beach and harm the environment. Proponents argue that Nags Head beaches are vital to the local economy and therefore must be protected.

Town officials have said the results of the project should last at least 10 years, and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency could pay for repair should a major storm erode nourished beaches.

* Reach Kristin Davis at (252) 441-1623 or kristin.davis@pilotonline.com.

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